Improvement in the manufacture of oil-cloth



UNITED STATEs PATENT OFFICE.

AMOS WILDER, OF AUGUSTA, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF OIL-CLOTH.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 53,648, dated July 28, 1874; application filed July 23, 1874.

CASE A.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AMos WILDER, of Augusta, in the county of Kennebec and State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oil-Cloth, of which the following is a specification:

My invention relates to a new and improved oil-cloth for covering floors and for other similar purposes; and it consists in breaking up, clouding, or otherwise marking the surface of the brush-coat with fine lines, which may be regular or irregular, as may be desired, or parallel, or at right angles, or otherwise crossed or arranged, after said brush-coat has been applied to the cloth, and before the figures or designs are printed upon thesame, for the purpose of giving to said brush-coat an ornamental and finished appearance, so that portions of it may be left exposed after the designs are printed upon the cloth, which will harmonize with and equal the said designs in appearance, and form a portion of the whole design of the finished article, and thus save the time and expense of covering the whole face of the cloth with printed designs.

It has heretofore been customary, in the manufacture of oil-cloth, to cover the brushcoat entirely with printed designs, or to leave but very limited portions of the brush-coat exposed. As previously prepared, the brush coat has presented an unbroken and unfinished appearance, which rendered it unfit to be exposed to any great extent through the printed designs. In preparing the cloth, as heretofore practiced, the fabric (which usually consists of burlaps or Hessians im-v ported for the purpose) is first thoroughly sized with a sizing of glue, or glue and flour, or its equivalent, and then coated with paint, either by machinery or by hand. The first coat of paint is sometimes composed of water-paintstha t is, glue dissolved in water and mixed with whiting, clay, ocher, &o.in order to give the cloth greater stiffness, and this paint may be applied to both sides of the cloth, if desired. After this a coating of oilpaint is applied to each side of the cloth. This paint usually consists of linseed oil,

naphtha or turpentine, and ground slate, whiting, ocher, or other cheap coloring material. The cloth thus-coated forms the cloth .known in the market as four-coat goods. This last coating upon the side of which the designs are to be printed is called the brushcoat, and has heretofore been entirely covered with the printed designs, or nearly so. The

opposite side or back of the cloth is generally painted of a darker color than the brush-coat. In higher grades of cloth an additional coating of paint is applied to each side of the cloth before the brush-coat and backing are applied,

forming what is known as six-coat cloth. After the brush-coat and backing have been properly applied the figures or designs are printed in proper colors upon the face of the brush-coat by means of blocks or otherwise, so as to cover, or nearly cover, its entire surface. The cloth is then submitted to a high temperature in a bake-house, or any other suitable dryingapartment, for one or two Weeks, so as to harden the paint, after which the cloth is ready for the market.

In carrying out my invention, I prepare the cloth in the same manner as above stated, forming the brush-coat and backing in the usual way. I then breakup, cloud, or mark the surface of the brush-coat with fine lines, which may be regular or irregular, as may be desired, or parallel, or otherwise crossed or arranged. This I do by means of a knife with a serrated edge, or other suitable instrument, while the cloth is passing through the machine, which marks or raises the soft paint into lines or ridges. namental or finished appearance to the brushcoat, and renders it fit to be exposed to any desired extent through the printed designs which are afterward applied to it. i

In order to render the brush-coat still more ornamental in appearance, I sometimes form said brush-coat of a diiferent color from the body-coat below it, and when marked as above the body paint will show through the same, giving it a beautiful and pleasing effect. The figures or designs are applied or printed on the brush-coat by means of blocks or other- This gives a highly or- 

